Friday, December 21, 2012

I'm happy to announce that my plan to reach the first milestone of the Chapter 5 final artwork production worked out smoothly. And without further ado - here are the preview panels from the first milestone for you:

Hey, how did I get HERE?

Why do I get the feeling that this is a girl's place?

For those who bother about my technique I'd like to share the fact that Chapter 5 is going to be a bit different from the preceding chapters. The old chapters were painted in triple resolution which means that panels like the ones above, with a final resolution of 640x240 pixels, would be painted in 1920x720 pixels. However, Chapter 5 is painted in quadruple resolution so the panels above were actually painted in 2560x960 pixels. The reason for that is that I'm preparing to offer an HD version of the Wormworld Saga inside the Wormworld Saga App in 2013. Fortunately, the added resolution does not slow down my progress but has a cosiderable effect on detail crispness. I really like the new workflow and I think that it will enhance the look of the Wormworld Saga further.

It really is a good feeling to have set the foot into the production and reaching the first milestone before the end of the year. The last few months were really exhausting and I'm looking forward to at least a few downshifted days next week. I just realized that this will be the first Christmas since the launch of the Wormworld Saga that will not bring a new chapter. I'm feeling a bit sorry about that but on the other hand I'm also feeling releaved that I don't have to worry about launch issues over the Christmas dinner this year.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

I just want to drop you all a short notice that today is the 12th December 2012. This means that all prints ordered from the Wormworld Saga Print Shoptoday will be dated "12-12-2012". It's noteworthy that this is the LAST occasion in this century to get a triple date on your print. O_o

And to make this extra attractive to you I'd like to announce that you can now also order the three posters from the last kickstarter campaign for 15€ (worldwide shipping included!):

So, head over to the print shop and get yourself a special treat for Christmas!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Just like you, I've been waiting for this update for a long time now. Over 3 months have passed since the release of Chapter 4 and I fear that a lot of you are already waiting for the next chapter being released at the end of this month. Well, that's not going to happen. What I can announce today is, that Chapter 5 is written and illustrated in its preliminary version and that I have decided on a title for it:

Chapter 5 - The Call of the Worm Mountain

I can give you a couple of reasons for the delay of Chapter 5. September started with three weeks of vacation during which I maintained the Wormworld Saga Treasure Chest kickstarter campaign. Right after returning home I headed to Frankfurt Bookfair to promote the release of the first Wormworld Saga book. In the following weeks my work was frequently interrupted by interviews concerning the book release and my wife and I started the production of all the fan items that were successfully financed through kickstarter. Just have a look at this:

Currently we're right in the middle of sending out this sweet stuff to the incredible backers of the kickstarter campaign. In January we're going to open up the Wormworld Shop in which then everyone will be able to get these items and more. Rest assured that this will be properly announced when the time comes.

But it would only be half the truth to say that these things alone caused the delay of Chapter 5. A major reason for the long time it took me to finish the writing of this chapter is, that it was a very hard chapter to write. Ironically, I started my work on Chapter 5 thinking that it would be a very easy chapter to write. I got over all the complicated legends and myths stuff in Chapter 4 and now I would only have to send Jonas out into the Wormworld, right?

WRONG!

When I started writing Chapter 5, I noticed that I made very little progress each day. I was really slow. Something was holding me back but I didn't know what it was. I just wanted to continue the adventure after all the talking in Chapter 4 but somehow I couldn't move on. Then I realized that it was Jonas who couldn't just move on. I had devastated him. I confronted him with a mission that in his eyes was absolutely impossible, unthinkable even. How could I expect him to just pick up his stuff and walk on? It was really hard work to cheer the little guy up and give him a reason to go on. When he finally was ready to continue his journey, so was I.

There were more issues like that. Without going into too much detail right now (I'm going to spare that for the 'Making Of') I must say that never before I've spent so much time on writing and rewriting dialogs. After having finished the prelim now I must say that Chapter 5 is a very important chapter. It looked so harmless on first sight but it was a lot of hard work to write.

And it's going to be huge! As you can see in the milestone chart above, it's going to be a lot longer than any chapter before it. It even dwarfs Chapter 3 which is really intimidating for me. I've got a lot of spectacular art in mind for this chapter and now that it's completely written I can't wait to illustrate it.

I'm not going to announce a release date for Chapter 5 just now. As you all know, we're heading into the Holidays and this means at least a few days of caring about other things than work. I hope to reach at least the first milestone before the end of the year though. I'm bracing for working like an ox through January and February and my dream goal would be to release Chapter 5 at the end of February. I don't know yet if this is realistic since the milestones are longer than usual this time. I guess that I will find out over the next two months, at what release date we are heading.

From now on I will keep you updated again about my progress and with every milestone update I will post preview images from Chapter 5. The Worm Mountain calls!